Tag: shelvie

How popular is the baby name Shelvie in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Shelvie and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Shelvie.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Shelvie

Number of Babies Named Shelvie

Posts that Mention the Name Shelvie

The Social Security Administration’s annual baby name list only includes names given to 5 or more U.S. baby girls (or baby boys) per year.

Most rare names never make the list, but a select group have appeared a single time. I like to call these the one-hit wonder baby names.

One-hit wonders tend to pop up with a relatively low number of babies — 5 or 6 — but a handful are given to dozens of babies…only to disappear again the next year! Intriguing, no?

Below are the highest-charting one-hit wonder names for every year on record before 2013. (We won’t know which 2013 names are one-hit wonders until later lists come out.) The format is: “Girl name(s), number of baby girls; Boy name(s), number of baby boys.”

Turns out that many Shelby-like names (Shelva, Shelbie, Shelba, Shelbia, Shelvy, Shelvie, Shelvia, Shelvey, Shelda, Shelma) debuted on the SSA’s baby name list in the mid-1930s, right around the time Shelby — previously more of a boy name — became popular for girls:

1939: 1,164 baby girls and 206 baby boys named Shelby

1938: 1,713 baby girls and 213 baby boys named Shelby

1937: 1,996 baby girls and 203 baby boys named Shelby

1936: 1,072 baby girls and 150 baby boys named Shelby

1935: 67 baby girls and 121 baby boys named Shelby

1934: 17 baby girls and 133 baby boys named Shelby

Why the spike and the sex-change for Shelby circa 1936?

The popular 1935 film The Woman in Red [vid], which starred Barbara Stanwyck as professional horse rider Shelby Barret. The movie was based on the book North Shore by Wallace Irwin.

*In 1959, Shelva (89) was ousted by Torey (102). Torey’s newfound fame was likely inspired by the character Torey Peck, played by Patty McCormack, on the short-lived summer sitcom Peck’s Bad Girl (1959).